So, one of my favorite shows is the Simpsons. I remember when I was younger, my grandma shaking her head at me, my brother and cousins for watching it, but she really didn't get the underlying message to almost any episode. That's the message of making up for your mistakes. All she saw was a drunken father who had married up, a dysfunctional son, over achieving daughter, and a surprisingly normal baby. I feel she was getting Family Guy and The Simpsons mixed up. Family Guy wishes it was The Simpsons, plain and simple.
In almost every episode of the Simpsons, excluding the Tree House of Horror episodes, someone screws up, usually Homer or Bart. Then, they face the consequences of those actions and try as hard as they can to make up for it. The thing that makes this series great is that it follows the classic Rising Action, Climax, falling action and resolution. It's a time honored formula and it really works for the Simpsons.
This Plot setup, unlike Family Guy that usually stakes the farm on crude jokes and a talking dog and baby, the Simpsons can be analyzed as an actually well written piece. All the while, it's still hilarious without a talking dog.
The prime example for me, and one of the biggest and most in your face examples, is The Simpsons Movie. Homer doesn't listen to anyone, dumps pig waste in the lake, and gets his family essentially kicked out of Springfield. After moving to Alaska at Homers request with a struggling and reluctant Marge and family in tow, they try to live a normal life, but eventually his family abandons him to try and save Springfield. Homer, belligerent and unwilling to help the very people that kicked him out of his own city, stays in Alaska.
In time, Home realizes the error of his ways. His family was his everything and without them, he's just a lump of fat with no real purpose in life. Eventually, he finds his way back to Springfield in time to help save the city from being blown up. Homer earns the trust and love back of his family and friends and they all live happily ever after.
My point in all this, is that the Simpsons family is far from perfect. They screw up quite regularly in fact. But they eventually try to fix their mistakes. They learn a lesson from whatever they did, and make up for it by any (sometimes hilarious means) possible. He's not the best father or husband, but he really sincerely tries at what he does. He improves upon himself and almost never does life get him knocked down for long.
In short, I want to be like Homer Simpson when I start a family (Minus the alcoholism, fat gut and baldness)
because Homer is one of the best examples of a man who tries his best despite what the world thinks of him, that I can think of.
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